League of Women Voters of Wilmette: Wilmette Public Library Local History Collection

League of Women Voters of Wilmette

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Track 1: League of Women Voters

 
Rhea Adler: Who was the earliest one here?
 
Member B: Florence. [Weinberg]
 
Rhea Adler: Was that you or?
 
Minna Gunther: 1932 you said.
 
Member D: Yeah, but go ahead.
 
Minna Gunther: No, you go ahead.
 
Member E: In '32, but that wasn't in Wilmette?
 
Rhea Adler: Yes, 1932.
 
Member E: '32?
 
Rhea Adler: Helen . . . well, wait a minute. . .
 
Member B: That would be Mrs. Grant.
 
[Multiple speakers]: No, no, no.
 
Robina Coates: She came later.
 
Member B: Oh, later. That's right.
 
Member G: She was later.
 
Rhea Adler: The first president of the League of Women Voters in 1924 was Mrs. Lloyd Ayers [nee Mabel Giddings]. How many of you knew her?
 
Robina Coates: No.
 
Rhea Adler: Oh, I did. She lived on Central Street where the National Tea parking lot now is.
 
Robina Coates: Oh, I do remember that.
 
Rhea Adler: Yes.
 
Robina Coates: Yes, I remember Mrs. Ayers now.
 
Rhea Adler: In 1925 Mrs. Charles P. Evans became president. Do you remember her?
 
[Multiple speakers]: Yes.
 
Member B: What year was that?
 
Rhea Adler: 1925. And for two years she was president.
 
Minna Gunther: I don't remember her as president. 

Robina Coates: No, I don't either.
 
Rhea Adler: Well, she was.
 
Minna Gunther: She was an old-timer when I came along.
 
Rhea Adler: And then the third president--these were all Wilmette Women's Club Members who began the League.
 
Robina Coates: Oh yes.
 
Rhea Adler: 1927-29 Mrs. Shelby M. Singleton [Olive].
 
Robina Coates: Oh my, yes. I remember things that happened at Mrs. Singleton's house.
 
Rhea Adler: And where did she live?
 
Robina Coates: She was on Lake Avenue at the . . . was Seventeenth? Corner of Seventeenth and . . . ? 

Rhea Adler: No. Eleventh.
 
Robina Coates: Eleventh. That was right. I remember, she wanted to sell part of her land, but they wouldn't let her do it because it wasn't big enough. But the thing that I remember is Helen Rye sneaking out for a smoke. [General laughter]. Nobody dared smoke in Mrs. Singleton's house.
 
Rhea Adler: That is where the Trinity Church parking lot now is.
 
Robina Coates: Yeah. Mmm hmm.
 
Member B: Oh yes.
 
Rhea Adler: Then, 1929-30--you notice they were one-year terms for most of them--Mrs. Ira Reynolds [Cora].
 
Robina Coates: Reynolds. Oh, yes.
 
[Multiple speakers]: I remember her.
 
Minna Gunther: 19-what? '30?
 
Rhea Adler: 1929-1930. And they had just come back from Washington. He had been in the Hoover administration in some capacity or other, but they returned to Wilmette, and he began his--I think he was a lawyer--his practice downtown. But she came from Galena, originally, she and her sister were school teachers from Galena.
 
Robina Coates: Oh yes, she would have been a school teacher.
 
Rhea Adler: And then Mrs. Harry Burnside [nee Gladys Allen].
 
Robina Coates: Oh yes. Mmm hmm.
 
Rhea Adler: And she was still alive the last I knew. I met her.
 
Rhea Adler: Is she gone now?
 
Robina Coates: I think I saw in Wilmette Life that sometime last year Helen Burnside died.
 
Rhea Adler: Oh, Helen Burnside. This is Mrs. Harry Burnside, a different Mrs. Burnside.
 
Member E: This is true.
 
Rhea Adler: Very different.
 
Robina Coates: Oh yes, there was another one. I was thinking of Helen Burnside.
 
Rhea Adler: I met her at Newberry Library one day, and she lives with a son in Chicago.
 
Robina Coates: Oh.
 
Rhea Adler: And then Mrs. C. L. Clark.
 
Robina Coates: Oh, I do remember her.
 
Member B: I don't remember her.
 
Robina Coates: I do remember Mrs. Clark.
 
Member B: What was her first name?
 
Rhea Adler: C. L. Clark. You know, I don't remember Mrs. Clark.
 
Member E: Did she live on Oakwood [?]?
 
Minna Gunther: You're thinking of Mrs. Baker.
 
Member [?]: Oh, Mrs. [John] Clark Baker [nee Hester Sproul].
 
Member B: Mrs. Clark Baker, that's whom I'm thinking of.
 
Robina Coates: Mrs. Clark Baker, that's the one I'm thinking of.
 
Rhea Adler: Then after her, in '33 and '34 was Mrs. John Behr.
 
Member E: Oh yes, I remember her.
 
Rhea Adler: From over in Kenilworth Gardens.
 
Member E: Yeah.
 
Rhea Adler: Then Mrs. Harry Burnside came back and did another year as president.
 
Robina Coates: She was president when I joined.
 
Rhea Adler: Yes.
 
Robina Coates: Helen Rye took me in hand, about . . .
 
Rhea Adler: That was '34 and '35.
 
Robina Coates: I was taken by the hand.
 
Rhea Adler: Helen took me, too.
 
Robina Coates: Mmm hmm.
 
Rhea Adler: Then, in '35 to '37 Mrs. Murdo Ross, and that's where Kenilworth comes in.
 
Robina Coates: Yeah. 

Member B: I didn't know she was in Kenilworth.
 
Robina Coates: Don't you remember?
 
Member B: Yes, I know who Mrs. Murdo Ross is . . .
 
Rhea Adler: Yes. She's gone now, but she had been president of the League. And then following her was Mrs. Fredrick Merrifield, Katherine. 

Minna Gunther: That's when I came in.
 
Rhea Adler: Yeah.
 
Member E: Is that when there was a big blow up on the jury?
 
Rhea Adler: That was when women . . .
 
Member [?]: No, that was much later.
 
Member E: Oh yeah, that was in '38. [1939]
 
Rhea Adler: Well, before Katherine was president, women were . . . given jury duty.
 
Member E: Excused.
 
Rhea Adler: No, they . . .
 
Member E: She served on the first panel . . .
 
Rhea Adler: That's right. She did.
 
Minna Gunther: But that was long after she . . .
 
Member E: That was after we moved here.
 
Robina Coates: Oh, that was after . . .
 
Member E: But there were some League people who were so angry at her they never talked to her after that.

Adler, Rhea, 1906-1990

, Speaker

Gunther, Minna K., 1920-2004

, Speaker

Coates, Robina, 1899-2000

, Speaker

Barnett, Amanda

, Transcriber

Media Type:

Audio

Image

Text

Item Type:

Audiocassettes

Description:

Note about this transcription: Transcription of a recorded conversation about the history of the League of Women Voters of Wilmette probably done sometime in 1978. Most speakers in this interview are unidentified. We have done our best to distinguish individual speakers, but in many cases, this transcript reflects only our best guess.

Transcription by Amanda Barnett, 11 March 2009. Corrections by Muriel Cohen and Kathy Klawans of the LWV

Notes:

Photograph of Esther Dunshee Bower, a prominent member of the League of Women Voters of Wilmette. The image comes from an article published in the Wilmette Life , "Women in Community Life," 13 May 1937, p.17

Date of Original:

About 1978

Date Of Event:

About 1978

Subject(s):

Organizations
League of Women Voters
Oral histories
Bower, Esther Dunshee, 1879-1983

Language of Item:

English

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